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The Demagogue's Playbook: The Battle for American Democracy from the Founders to Trump Audiobook
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"Narrator Peter Berkrot's vocal tone has a flinty mid-20th century quality that works well with this historical review of how demagogues in the U.S. have repeatedly exploited populism since the founding of the nation. Serious but never overwrought, he has a lovely way with phrasing that enhances the richness of these sentences while deftly moderating the undercurrent of alarm in the writing." -- AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award winner What Happens to Democracy When a Demagogue Comes to Power? "It is hard to imagine understanding the Trump presidency and its significance without reading this book.” — Bob Bauer, Former Chief Counsel to President Barack Obama What—and who—is a demagogue? How did America’s Founders envision the presidency? What should a constitutional democracy look like—and how can it be fixed when it appears to be broken? Something is definitely wrong with Donald Trump’s presidency, but what exactly? The extraordinary negative reaction to Trump’s election—by conservative intellectuals, liberals, Democrats, and global leaders alike—goes beyond ordinary partisan and policy disagreements. It reflects genuine fear about the vitality of our constitutional system. The Founders, reaching back to classical precedents, feared that their experiment in mass self-government could produce a demagogue: a charismatic ruler who would gain and hold on to power by manipulating the public rather than by advancing the public good. President Trump, who has played to the mob and attacked institutions from the judiciary to the press, appears to embody these ideas. How can we move past his rhetoric and maintain faith in our great nation? In The Demagogue’s Playbook, acclaimed legal scholar Eric A. Posner offers a blueprint for how America can prevent the rise of another demagogue and protect the features of a democracy that help it thrive—and restore national greatness, for one and all. A Macmillan Audio production from All Points Books “Cuts through the hyperbole and hysteria that often distorts assessments of our republic, particularly at this time.” —Alan Taylor, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for History
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"Perhaps the most ambitious attempt to rethink democracy and markets since Milton Friedman. Twenty years from now this just might be the book people are talking about. The writing is excellent, with great examples and historical detail. I admire the ambition and willingness to experiment, a rare thing in economics these days. It just might help launch a new branch of political economy."
— Kenneth S. Rogoff, author of The Curse of Cash
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“Cuts through the hyperbole and hysteria that often distorts assessments of our republic, particularly at this time.”
— Alan Taylor, winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for History -
“A fascinating political history…by reading Posner’s survey, readers will see more clearly and starkly the historical context of Trump’s rise to political power and how he appeals and holds on to his base.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“Narrator Peter Berkrot’s vocal tone has a flinty mid-20th century quality that works well with this historical review…Serious but never overwrought, he has a lovely way with phrasing that enhances the richness of these sentences while deftly moderating the undercurrent of alarm in the writing…[An] appealing performance…Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile -
“An almost novellike stroll through American history…An insightful analysis into what went wrong with the Founders’ dream.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“In a survey of demagogues through American history, Posner sees Trump as a president similar to Andrew Jackson, hostile to expertise and existing institutions, and intentionally sowing seeds of division in order to enhance his own power.”
— New York Times Book Review -
"I have always been motivated to find ways to unite the power of technology and markets with the goal of creating a more egalitarian society, and the authors of this book offer an exploration of these apparently contradictory strands.
— Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft -
Radical Markets thinks big and builds daring proposals, all on a unified theme: the need for maintaining competition and eliciting decentralized information, whose neglect led to the demise of planned economies. Whether you are convinced by the specific proposals or not, your confidence in your worldview may well be shattered by the depth and originality of the analysis.
— Jean Tirole, Toulouse School of Economics, Nobel Laureate in Economics, and author of Economics for the Common Good
Awards
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Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award
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About Peter Berkrot
Peter Berkrot, winner of Audie and Earphones Awards for narration, is a stage, screen, and television actor and acting coach. He has narrated over 450 works that span a range of genres, including fiction, nonfiction, thriller, and children’s titles. His audiobook credits include works of Alan Glynn, Eric Van Lustbader, Nora Roberts and Dean Koontz. In film and television, he appeared in Caddyshack, America’s Most Wanted, and Unsolved Mysteries. He performs in regional and New York theaters and directs the New Voices acting school.